GGL Wire

I decided to go to Wired Magazine’s NextFest on a whim. I can get in for free as a journalist, and I figured there might be a couple of gaming-related items to see.

Welcome to the future! Funny, the future looks just like E3. And the spaceport from Starship Troopers.

I was wrong. There is a LOT going on in today’s research and start-up firms that will affect the future of gaming. None of it is new conceptually, but it’s amazing to see technologies imagined by the cyberpunk authors of the ’80s coming to life today. No wonder William Gibson now sets his novels in modern day.

This is the third Wired NextFest, and it’s being held this weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The first two were held in Chicago and New York. The relatively small show is “a four-day festival of cool inventions and cutting-edge technologies from the world’s leading innovators.” This year, the XPrize Foundation announced their Google Lunar X Prize, which will be awarded to the first private company that will be able to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon.

 

 

 

Deigned by James Sears at NYU, the ORB is a sphere of LEDs that rotates at 1600 RPM to create a spherical computer display. Very cool.

 

A video screen made of water droplets. The kids love it.

The Morpho Towers: two metal towers on a metal plate, covered in ferrofluid. Electromagnets respond to the music that’s playing, and the ferrofluid dances around the towers. Neat.

I took this gorgeous photo of a Morpho Tower. I’m a genius.

The RFID Wine Rack. Decide what wine you want, and the cubby lights up. Who needs the flying car?

RFID clothing lets anyone track your movements.

The BodyBug, a miniature personal robot from Sweden. You wear it on a cord, and it learns from and responds to your body movements. It also talks to other BodyBugs. But what is it for? Even the woman from the company didn’t seem to know. “BodyBug is like having a large beetle crawling all over you, but without the little legs.” Oh, good.

Tanaka Seisakusho’s E-TAF Door, which opens in the shape of your silhouette. It would be great for buildings that need to control temperature and airflow. It’s cool, too.

Here I am, using the E-TAFDoor. It’s the amazing world of the future, and everyone’s invited!

In real life, being bionic is not as “fun” as it looks on TV.

“Brainloop is an interactive performance platform that utilizes a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system which allows a subject to operate devices merely by imagining specific motor commands.” Blows keyboard+mouse all to hell.

The Brainloop dude.

Multi-touch Collaboration Wall, inspired by the computers in Minority Report.

As you turn the globe, the image turns with it. Rotate the outer dial and the continents move backward and forward in time.

Beats the hell out of your racing controller.

Zeno, the “revolutionary robotic friend.” His eyes follow you and his face shows emotion. Personally, David annoyed the crap out of me– I preferred Teddy. Or Gigolo Joe.Or especially Gigolo Jane.

This has nothing to do with NextFest. I just wanted to post a pic of Gigolo Jane. Sexy robots FTW.

Frubber, the patented polymer that looks and feels like real (Caucasian) skin. Seriously, it does, it’s creepy as shit. And since it’s not warm, it’s like touching a corpse. Still, we’re one step closer to sexy robots!

A fleshy fake head of fake fleshy flesh. Nice lip ring.

Coming soon: the artificial Jew!

Um, I’m sorry I missed the Yarbot. I must say, though, if you think there’s no market for a Philip K. Dick robot — I’d buy one. He could keep my Gigolo Jane and Teddy company.

When you wave at Einstein Hubo, he looks right at you and waves back. Now if only he could develop a quantum theory of a monatomic gas.

Glowbots are small wheeled robots that communicate with each other to play the Game of Life. If you understand why this is cool, then you are a geek.

A swimming robotic snake.

Zou Ren Ti, who runs the Xi’an Superman Sculpture Research Institute in China (left), chats with Zou Ren Ti of the Xi’an Superman Sculpture Research Institute in China (right).

Step 1: Put the VR goggles on the little girl.

Step 2: Put the little girl in the giant ball.

Step 3: Lock the little girl in the giant ball.

Step 4: Spin the giant ball with the little girl in it.
Step 5: Profit!

This is what the little girl sees. As she walks in the ball, the world moves.

“Designed for military training and high-end arcade games, VirtuSphere lets users roam around simulated environments without being limited by physical barriers.”

Approves.

AirScooter G70 UAV with Internal Combustion Engine… the Little Sister.

AirScooter VTOL Ultralight Vehicle… the Big Daddy.

If you don’t have your own amphibian vehicle, how are you going to survive global warming?

The Human-powered Vehicle Simulator. That’s a simulator of Human-powered vehicles, not a human-powered vehicle simulator. And yes, it’s running on an old Xbox.

This is what the “rider” sees.

The Wheelsurf gasoline powered vehicle. You steer by shifting your weight. Hey wait a minute, what does this remind me of?

Oh. Yeah. Ouch.

Hey, these kids are wearing 3D goggles. What are they watching? C’mon, let’s find out!

Oh. It’s a football training simulation. Real plays are digitized, and the coach can view the action in 3D from any angle. Look out Tom Brady, these kids are gonna kick your ass!

Tokyo Denki University’s Sound Flakes. The light projects appear to float in the water; you can pick them up and drop them back into the water with the ladle. As they move they make sounds.

Keepon the dancing thingy, from Carnegie Mellon’s Marek Michalowski & Hideki Kozima of Japan’s National Institute of Communications Technology. I’m getting sick of seeing this guy.

They’re moving the ball WITH THEIR MINDS.

They’re moving the ball WITH THEIR FREAKIN’ MINDS!!!

See??? Jesus freakin’ Christ, THEY’RE MOVING THE BALL WITH THEIR FREAKIN’ MINDS!!!

The interactive climbing wall.

EdgeBomber: So you place tape and stickers on the screen, which will mark the locations of items on the level you’re designing…

…go back to the joystick and get ready…

…and the level renders. Guide Ozkar as he avoids the deadly flying sausages!

Wow. I took alot of pics. I’ll get to the others on Monday — when you’ll get to see the gaming hamster, the real Grand Theft Auto,  a gaming hamster, and all sorts of NASA crap!